Masquerade
by Pitch Black Frost
Summary: The Evil Queen's vampire army has taken over the kingdom, leaving it in a dystopian state while she demands the heart of her stepdaughter. *intertwining the stories of Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tales with a vampiric twist, set in an apocalyptic past*


**PROLOGUE**

Once upon a time there was a young girl name Alice. Though her parents tried to raise her as an obedient and controlled young lady, Alice had a mind of her own and was far more interested in the imperfect and chaotic things in the world.

One afternoon, while walking alone in the woods on the borderline of her home, Alice crossed paths with a white rabbit. At first glance, it was an ordinary rabbit. But, as Alice slowly approached she soon saw it had ruby red eyes. Being the curious girl that she was, Alice followed the rabbit. It hopped through the woods; deeper and deeper and at times Alice found it hard to keep up with it.

That is, until it stopped at the edge of a hole. It glanced back at her, then jumped in. Alice stepped closer to the hole and peered down, but she saw nothing. The hole was dark it was impossible to see what was inside or even how far it went. As fate would have it, though, Alice leaned over just a little too much and she tumbled in after the rabbit.

Stories say she fell into a wonderful world known as Wonderland. But the truth, however, is much darker…

When Alice finally landed at the bottom of the hole, she found herself in the deepest depths of Hell. Despite being young, naïve and vulnerable, Alice was not afraid. Instead she was intrigued… especially by the King himself. The very first time she laid eyes on the dark and handsome King, she was enchanted. It only took a moment for her to decide she wanted serve him in any way she could.

The King saw promise in young Alice would use her to send souls to him. When she was ready, he would send her back to the surface world as a new kind of creature; one that had inhuman strength, a powerful bloodlust and eternal life. When she returned, she was to turn other humans into the creature she was and create an army that would kill and send more souls to the King.

Time passed quickly in Hell, and when Alice became a young lady of fifteen, the King began to lust after her. One night, while she slept, he came into her chambers and violently took her body. Alice was a willing victim.

Shortly after she turned sixteen, Alice gave birth to a daughter. Alice and her daughter stayed with the king until Alice's was twenty-one and finally ready to return to the surface world.

Alice went home, bringing her daughter with her. But, when her parents heard Alice's horrific story, they became fearful for her and of her daughter. They took her five-year-old daughter away from her and Alice was locked up in an asylum.

The asylum was unlike anything Alice had ever seen before. The people were more deformed and crazy than the demons she had known while with the King. Though Alice was frightened and could have easily fought off the men leading her to her room, she was too devastated over losing her daughter to react to anything. She hated her parents for what they did. She vowed that when she escaped this place she would go after them, make them tell her where her daughter is and then kill them. After all, what were they really to her? They didn't raise her; the King did.

Alice's heart ached for her king. It hadn't been long since she left him and already she wished she never had. Perhaps she wasn't ready after all. She should have stayed or in the very least left their daughter with him so that she would have been safe.

Due to the over-crowding in the asylum, Alice was forced to share a room with another patient. That would be Alice's silver lining.

The man dressed in all white unlocked the thick door. He removed her straightjacket before pushing her inside the room and locking her in. A young, beautiful woman was sitting on one of the beds. She had vivid auburn hair and pale skin the color of a full moon. Her hair was stringy and looked like it hadn't been brushed in a few days. She wore an overgrown gown similar to the one the man in white gave to Alice to wear- but this woman had tears and black smudges on hers.

Alice walked over to the other bed and sat down. The girl looked at her, brushing her hair off her face. Eyes the color of a stormy sea looked back at her and Alice could tell she was only a couple years older than Alice.

Alice leaned forward on her bed. The room was so small she could have touched the girl, but she refrained from doing so in order not to scare her. "My name is Alice."

The girl bit her lip. Judging by the small cuts and dried blood on her lower lip, Alice guessed that was a habit she did a lot. After a long, uncomfortable silence, the girl finally replied, "I'm Karra."

For the first couple days Alice was in the asylum that was the only thing Karra ever said to her. Karra was withdrawn and mostly kept to herself. She never spoke to any of the other patients and was alone whenever she had the chance. Alice watched over her from a distance, wondering why she felt drawn to this woman whom she's never had a conversation with and knew nothing about.

Slowly, though, Karra eventually began to speak more to Alice when they were alone in their room. They were short comments about the food or one of the other patients at first; never any real conversations. But, as the days went on, she opened up more and more. Karra eventually found an unlikely friend in the immortal Alice. For the first time since she returned to the surface, Alice had found someone who showed her true kindness and Alice could not helping falling for her the way she had fallen for the King.

One night after a nightmare, Karra confided in Alice that it had been her own husband who had her locked up. Alice's heart broke for Karra and she was consumed with hatred for the man who would discard a majestic woman such as Karra.

"Why would he do that?" Alice asked, gently.

Karra bit her lip. "I have a secret."

Alice laughed a little. "Don't we all?"

Karra slowly tilted her head to the side and fixed her gray eyes on Alice. A few seconds ticked away before she spoke again. "I'm a witch." She said each word carefully as if they had the power to sting her tongue. "I've been able to do magic most of my life. I kept it hidden from my husband for a while, afraid of how he would react. Once he started talking about us having children, though, I knew I had to tell him the truth. It frightened him and he grew angry with me for keeping this from him. He told me I was dangerous and shouldn't be around other people so he had me locked up." Alice gently touched Karra's hand. Karra winced and pulled her hand away. "I'm dangerous," she repeated. She sounded weak and vulnerable like a little girl instead of a young woman of twenty-three. "I could hurt you."

"You won't hurt me," Alice told her. "I trust you." She gingerly took Karra's hand in hers. "See?"

"Do you want to see what I can do?" Karra asked meekly.

Alice nodded. Karra removed her hand from Alice's and held it palm up. Within just a couple of seconds, a small flame appeared, hovering over her hand. Karra smiled at it.

"That's incredible!" Alice breathed. "Can you make it bigger?"

"Of course." Karra wiggled her fingers slightly and the flame became twice as big. Alice reached her hand towards the flame. "No, don't!" Karra exclaimed. "It'll burn you."

Alice smiled at her. "It won't. I'm used to the heat." Though Karra was visibly anxious, she allowed Alice to touch the flame.

To Karra's surprise, nothing happened. Alice didn't wince or even get burned. Afraid that Alice would get burned if she left her hand in the flame too long, Karra extinguished it.

Alice looked up at her. "You have complete control over it?" Karra nodded. "You're not dangerous, Karra. And you don't belong in a place like this." She stood up and pulled Karra to her feet. "We can help each other escape."

After hearing what Karra's husband did to her, Alice hoped that by helping Karra escape the asylum, she could earn Karra's love.

The young witch used her magic to unlock the door and they quietly snuck out. They got passed all of the patients' rooms without any trouble. But as they neared the exit doors, several men in white appeared to stop them. Karra shot out giant flames from her hands, setting the halls and nearby rooms on fire. Karra and Alice walked through the fire unscathed, but still the men managed to seize Karra. Alice attacked each of the men, ripping their throats apart with her teeth. It was her first taste of human blood since she had been on the surface and the second it hit her tongue, she wanted more. She fed off every man in white that came after them, using their blood to fuel her strength.

When they were all dead, Alice grabbed the stunned Karra and pulled her out of the building. They ran for several miles before they felt it was safe to stop.

"Who are you?" Karra demanded, after catching her breath.

With her new inhuman strength and speed, Alice was nowhere near as out of breath as Karra. "I told you: we all have our secrets."

"You ate those men!" Karra's voice rose a couple octaves as she slowly backed away from Alice.

"You don't have to be afraid of me, Karra; I would never hurt you."

"How do I know that? How do I know you're not going to… _feed_ off me like you did them?" She nervously bit down on her lip, drawing blood.

The smell was intoxicating to Alice and she wanted to taste to the magic-infused blood flowing through Karra, but she resisted the urge. "I won't hurt you because… Because I love you."

Karra gaped at her. "Can you even feel love?" It wasn't an accusation, but a genuine question, which confused Alice. Karra continued before Alice could answer, "What you did wasn't human. You killed those men.; you're a monster."

Karra may as well have carved Alice's heart out with her pointed words. Karra turned on her heel and started hurrying away.

"Stop!" Alice called after her. "Where are you going?"

"Home." Karra was crying now. "I'm going back to my husband. I could never love someone like you."

Alice knew Karra was just scared and didn't mean to hurt her, but she did nonetheless. How could she say those things to her and go back to the man who had her locked up when Alice was the one who had been there for her and helped her when no one else would?

Alice followed Karra home, keeping her distance. When Karra finally reached her house before dawn the next morning, Alice was sure her husband would refuse her because of what she was, just as she had done to Alice and then Karra would understand and accept her. But that wasn't what happened. Her husband took her back.

Jealous and angry, Alice wanted nothing more than to strike at Karra. Alice couldn't go out in the sunlight, so she waited until that night to return to the house. Both Karra and her husband were asleep when Alice climbed through their window and stood in their bedroom. He was snoring quietly and was lying close to him with her head on his chest. Alice reached out and ran her fingers over Karra's smooth skin. She stirred and opened her eyes. Alice gave her a dark smile, revealing her fangs.

Karra screamed and sat up. Her husband jolted awake and was on his feet in an instant when he saw Alice. "Who are you?"

Alice glanced at Karra. "I'm a monster." Without warning, she lunged at the man. She bit down hard on his neck, causing blood gush over her mouth and his skin.

Karra screamed again. "No! Leave him alone!"

Alice let go of him and he sank to his knees, covering his wound with his hand. Alice made a show of licking the blood off her lips.

"He's going to bleed to death, pretty Karra," she hissed. "And it's your fault."

"No…"

"You did this to him."

"No, please," Karra whimpered.

"Say goodbye to your man, Karra." Alice thrust her fist into his chest. Wrapping her fingers around his rapidly beating heart she could feel his life slipping away. With one last smile at Karra, she ripped his heart out his chest.

"Why are you doing this?" Karra whispered, falling to the floor. Just like that she was back to the vulnerable, weak state she had been in when they first met at the asylum.

Alice wiggled her fingers around the heart. "I suppose it's because I'm a monster. And monsters kill people, right, Karra?" She tossed the heart at Karra and it landed in her lap. Karra jumped to her feet and backed up against the wall.

"Please leave me alone."

Alice walked towards her. "Not yet. I'm not quite done with you." She grabbed Karra by the neck, then bit her own wrist and forced the blood into Karra's mouth. Karra fought against her, but she was no match for Alice's strength. "When my blood has finished taking over your body, you will be just like me."

x ~ X ~ x

After that night, Alice wandered around for twelve years, alone and with a hardened heart. She did as the King commanded and turned others into what she was, slowly creating the army he wanted. But the followers and the blood weren't enough. Alice needed some sort of companionship. Though, she had all but given up on finding someone to fill her void. That is, until one day when she was reunited with her long lost daughter. Alice, of course, had gone back to pay her parents a visit in order to find her daughter, but they were already dead and no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't find her. She finally found her daughter working on a farm many miles from where she had last seen her. Alice turned her and the two of them ruled the immortal armies together.

Meanwhile, Karra vowed revenge on Alice; but she never saw her again. For years, she tried tracking and hunting down Alice and her armies, but she always failed. One thing Karra knew for certain, though: Alice had a weakness. Karra would find a way to learn what that weakness was and hit Alice with all she had. She knew the gateway to Alice's King's lair was buried in the village of one of the Trinity Kingdoms and that one day Alice would return. So, it is there that Karra waits to avenge the death of love.


End file.
